page_title: Ambigram
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ambigram / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Mirror ambigram ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ (Nipson anomemata me monan opsin, Wash your sins, not only your face) inscribed in ancient Greek upon a holy water font outside the site of Saint Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople. All the letters are symmetrical vertically, with the N stylized Ͷ in the right part, as a result the sentence is not only a palindrome but also a mirror ambigram, that can be read the same way in either direction. The phrase was firstly written on the apex at the entrance of the church, and is attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus. Français&#160;: Ambigramme miroir ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ (Nipson anomemata me monan opsin, Lave tes péchés, pas seulement ton visage) inscrit en grec ancien au-dessus d'une fontaine d'eau bénite, à l'extérieur de l'église Sainte-Sophie à Constantinople. Toutes les lettres sont symétriques verticalement, avec le N stylisé Ͷ dans la partie droite, ainsi la phrase n'est pas seulement un palindrome mais aussi un ambigramme miroir, qui peut être lu de la même manière dans les deux sens. La phrase a d'abord été écrite en haut de l'entrée de l'église, et est attribuée à Grégoire de Nazianzus. Ελληνικά: Καρκινική γραφή ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ, Αγία Σοφία (Κωνσταντινούπολη).
context_page_description: An ambigram is a calligraphic design that has several interpretations as written.
  The word ambigram was coined by Douglas Hofstadter, an American scholar of cognitive science.
context_section_description: Although the term is recent, the existence of mirror ambigrams has been attested since at least the first millennium. They are generally palindromes stylized to be visually symmetrical. 
  In ancient Greek, the phrase "νιψον ανομηματα μη μοναν οψιν" (wash the sins, not only the face), is a palindrome found in several locations, including the site of the church Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, Turkey. It is sometimes turned into a mirror ambigram when written in capital letters with the removal of spaces, and the stylization of the letter N (Ͷ).
  The first sator square palindrome was found in the ruins of Pompeii, that means it was created before 79 AD.
  A sator square using the mirror writing for the representation of the letters S and N was carved in a stone wall in Oppède (France) between the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages
  A boustrophedon is a type of bi-directional text, mostly seen in ancient manuscripts and other inscriptions. 
  Every other line of writing is flipped or reversed, with reversed letters. Rather than going left-to-right as in modern European languages, or right-to-left as in Arabic and Hebrew, 
  alternate lines in boustrophedon must be read in opposite directions. Also, the individual characters are reversed, or mirrored. It was a common way of writing in stone in Ancient Greece.
  Mirror writing in Islamic calligraphy flourished during the early modern period, but its origins may stretch as far back as pre-Islamic mirror-image rock inscriptions in the Hejaz. 
  The earliest known non-natural rotational ambigram dates to 1893 by artist Peter Newell. Although better known for his children's books and illustrations for Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, he published two books of reversible illustrations, in which the picture turns into a different image entirely when flipped upside down. The last page in his book Topsys & Turvys contains the phrase THE END, which, when inverted, reads PUZZLE. In Topsys & Turvys Number 2 (1902), Newell ended with a variation on the ambigram in which THE END changes into PUZZLE 2.
  In March 1904 the Dutch-American comic artist Gustave Verbeek used ambigrams in three consecutive strips of The UpsideDowns of old man Muffaroo and little lady Lovekins. His comics were ambiguous images, made in such a way that one could read the 6 panel comic, flip the book and keep reading. In The Wonderful Cure of the Waterfall (13 March 1904) an indian medicine man says 'Big waters would make her very sound', while when flipped the medicine man turns into an Indian woman who says  'punos dery, eay apew poom, serlem big'. Which is explained as, 'poor deary' several foreign words that meant that she would call the 'Serlem Big'. The next comic called At the House of the Writing Pig (20 March 1904), where two ambigram word balloons are featured. The first features an angry pig trying to make the main protagonist leave by showing a sign that says; 'big boy go away, dis am home of mr h hog', up side down it reads 'Boy yew go away. We sip. Home of hog pig.'. The protagonist asks the pig if it wants a big bun, upon which it replies 'Why big buns? Am mad u!', which flips into 'In pew we sang big hym'. Finally in The Bad Snake and the Good Wizard (1904 Mar 27) there are two more ambigrams. The first turns 'How do you do' into the name of a wizard called 'Opnohop Moy', the second features a squirrel telling the protagonist 'Yes further on' only to inform it that there are 'No serpents here' on his way back. These ambigrams are all relatively simple compared to contemporary designs, but given the constraints that Verbeek had due to the drawing and story they are impressive nevertheless. In a 2012 Swedish remake of the book, the artist Marcus Ivarsson redraws The Bad Snake and the Good Wizard in his own style. He removes the squirrel, but keeps the other ambigram. 'How do you do' is replaced by 'Nejnej' (Swedish for no no) and the wizard is now called 'Laulau'.
  From June to September 1908, the British monthly The Strand published a series of ambigrams by different people in its "Curiosities" column. Of particular interest i
caption: Mirror ambigram ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟΝΑΝΟΨΙΝ (Wash your sins, not only
  your face) inscribed in ancient Greek upon a holy water font outside the site of the church Hagia Sophia.[2] All the letters are symmetrical vertically, with the N stylized Ͷ in the right part, so the sentence can be read the same way in two directions.
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